Morgan favourite to stand as Euro SDLP candidate

Belfast Lord Mayor Martin Morgan has emerged as the early favourite to stand for the SDLP in the European elections next June.

Former party leader John Hume, a member of the Strasbourg assembly since 1979, is due to confirm later today a decision to stand down.

Mr Hume, 67 last month, has been in poor health for some time and it is understood he had been under medical and family pressure to ease up. He is still MP for Foyle at Westminster.

The party’s new candidate will be announced at its annual conference later this month, but Mr Morgan, from north Belfast, one of eight nominees to take over as party chairman, is very much in the running, sources confirmed today.

Other possible contenders are likely to include Carmel Hanna, a former minister in the power-sharing executive at Stormont, but if Mr Hume withdraws, the party faces a huge challenge to retain one of the three Northern Ireland seats in Europe.

Sinn Féin was already well poised to move in after polling well ahead of the SDLP in the elections to the Stormont Assembly in November.

The Rev Ian Paisley, 77, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, announced last month he would not be going forward. The party has yet to name a replacement candidate. He was first elected in June 1979, the same time as Mr Hume, who signalled his intention to stand again just a few months ago.

He was virtually guaranteed to retain his seat, but he was urged to think again because of his health.

The third Northern Ireland Euro MP is the Ulster Unionist Jim Nicholson.